Publisher DTP Crew

This is one of many short video segments which will be added to the Digital Tipping Point (DTP) archive. This series of two interview segments features Elmer Rivera, the 8th grade history, social studies, and technology teacher at the KIPP San Francisco Bay Academy, a public charter middle school in San Francisco which is the setting for much of the story of the Digital Tipping Point. The Digital Tipping Point crew wanted to test their theory that there will be a global digital tipping point, in which Free Open Source Software becomes suddenly popular, resulting in greater literacy and advancement in the sciences. So the Digital Tipping Point crew has tracked the work of some of the members of the local San Francisco Linux Users Group who have been working on providing Free Open Source Software to this one school, to see if the students and staff of the school would accept Free Open Source Software, and if so, if it would make a difference for them.

All of Elmer Rivera's February 2009 interview can be found here:


http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv593_elmer_rivera_a_2009_feb_001.ogg (segment 01)

http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv593_elmer_rivera_b_2009_feb_001.ogg (segment 02)

In segment 01 of this interview, Elmer talks about the current status of the Xubuntu GNU-Linux computer lab, which is located in the gym building off of the main school building. He says that recently, the teachers have been using it to support the kids, particularly the 8th graders in applying to local high schools, to complete English class essays, and to prepare presentations on astronomy for their science class. The broader purpose of this work in the lab is to make the kids independent in their use of computers and the Internet, so that when the kids get to high school, they will not need to rely on their teachers so much for guidance in completing those basic tasks. The kids have used Google Docs for their essays and science presentations.

He says that the network in the lab is faster this year than in past years, and more reliable. The kids this year have been fascinated with the presidential election, and have been following the candidacy and presidency of Barack Obama. The teachers have learned that if lots of kids go into the lab and download videos from the Internet, it can slow the lab down, unless a teacher or a student goes down to the lab to start the download before the whole class gets there, for the purpose of caching the video. He explains that caching the video is a way to avoid stressing the Internet connection all at once, the same way that water is drawn from the resevoir in the back of a toilet, as opposed to drawing water directly out of a household's pipes, thereby over-taxing the pipes and weakening the water pressure for everyone.

In segment 02, he says that Barack Obama was a popular research topic for the kids, primarily because the kids are largely African-American and Latino. But his goal was to encourage the kids to deepen their analysis of Obama's policies. The kids were able to take apart Obama's position on education, immigration, and the Iraq war, and compare those policies with Republican candidate John McCain and with the policies of the Bush administration. Having the videos available on the Internet allowed the kids to individualize their research, by rewinding the videos, and viewing the videos at their own pace, so that they could delve more deeply into the substance of the issues. He says that they would not have been able to encourage the kids to investigate that deeply without the lab.

Elmer says that he uses the existence of the lab itself as a pedagogic tool about the importance of giving back to the community. One of the themes for the 8th grade year at the KIPP San Francisco Bay Academy is to encourage the kids to understand their role in society, and to appreciate what others have given them, so that they can, in turn, enrich their community by giving back. The lab has been built by all volunteer labor, and so he tries to get the kids to understand that they would not be able to watch video in school or do their Internet research without the presence of Xubuntu GNU-Linux lab.

Elmer says that in 2009, the 7th graders have not been as active in the Xubuntu lab, because they are focusing on writing exercises in class, not in the lab, in preparation for a standardized English essay test that is impending. He thinks that the 7th graders will be more active there again in the lab after the test is over.

As the 8th grade teacher most responsible for teaching the kids how to use computer technology, he appreciates the fact that the 7th graders are taken into the lab. As 7th graders, the kids learn the basics of using computers and using the lab, so that he doesn't have to do so much of that training in 8th grade, and can thus focus on more of the advanced research expected of 8th graders. The administration and staff are discussing ways to increase use of the Xubuntu GNU-Linux lab in 5th and 6th grade, so that the transition in the 7th grade will be that much easier.

This footage is our raw rough-cut footage. It lacks transitions, music, special effectsor finish rendering. It is our "source code". Please feel free to rip, mix and burn this footage consistent with our Creative Commons license as disclosed on this page.

If you like this segment, please consider typing up a summary for it and emailing that summary to Christian Einfeldt at einfeldt@gmail.com. Your work will be credited and posted on this page.

The DTP will be many, many films created by the global open source video community about how open source is changing their lives. We, the DTP crew, are submitting this footage for anyone to rip, mix, and burn under the Creative Commons Attribute - ShareAlike license. We welcome edits, transcriptions, graphics, music, and animation contributions to the film. Please send a link for any contributions to Christian Einfeldt at einfeldt@gmail.com.

Or, if you would like to contribute by directly transcribing this particular video segment, you can do so by going here:

http://digitaltippingpoint.com/wiki/index.php/Tape_593

and typing the audio as you hear it into the wiki. Please be sure to add the transcription for this segment under: Segment 001, Elmer Rivera Xubuntu update
You can find other ways to contribute by going to our wiki front page here:

http://digitaltippingpoint.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

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Contact Information Christian Einfeldt, einfeldt at g mail dot com